When you think of rain forests, you probably think of the amazon or the congo. These are tropical rain forests. The elements are something that much less common, a temporary rain forest. Both sources agree on a few main qualifiers. Lots of rain all year, not just during a rainy season, cool overnight summers and a colder winter. And some other indicators, like the absence of wild fire or ever fights, plants growing on other plants. For most conditions. We get a map of the temporary rainforest as zone. The largest and most famous is in the pacific northwest, with other large chunks in cha, new zealand, japan, the himalayan splotch along the western coast of era. But if you squint your eyes, you will see a tiny spot in the east in united states. Squint harder and you will see steep mountains, terrain, IT peaks like Mitchell and cleaning done, towering several thousand feet above the surrounding landscape. You'll see the atlantic ocean and gulf of mexico nearby, sending large storms and weather systems, the smack into these mounts, dropping as much as two hundred and twenty centimeters of rain each year. And you'll see the result, a dense forest home to more than twenty thousand and species, hundreds of trees, thousands of plants and, fun guy, more than five hundred masses, firms, handful are only found here, and new ones continue to be described. This is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth, but also one of the most rare. This is a spruce fir forest found at the highest elevation of the application rainforest zone. Thousands of years ago, the northern end of this mountain range was buried under glacial as the ice advanced species native to the north of moved south to avoid extinction. When the glass are treated in the client warmed, the species climb to higher ovations, looking for the colder conditions they used to. Now on mountaintops s. Here in the south, you find a landscape that feels almost like canada. Many of these species into up stuck on mountain tops with no way of migrating elsewhere. And they evolved into a web of species found only here, some only on individual summits. These mountain tops are often described as biological islands or time capsules. I like to think of them as geological footprints left behind by the retreating ice. At the foot of these peaks are coves, shelter values, were rich soil, mild climates and rain from the mountains above allow for its saying, biodiversity. These code forests are the most biodiverse temporary ecosystem in north america, one of those biodiverse in the world. And there are home to trees of record size and height for many species, though the best remaining example of the old growth, the sidus forest that once covered much of the eastern united states in one hundred ninety five. The fish and wildlife service put out a report identifying endanger ecosystems in the U. S, topping the list or the spruce r forest and the old growth eastern and desirous forest. In nineteen fourteen, the login railroad amount mil started letting tourists paid the right at the top. Thousands of people visited the summit, saw this one of a kind forest, and saw that being quickly cut down. They related for its protection. In the nineteen fifteen, mount mital became the region's first state park. Set in the example for a much larger project, the great smoking mountains make up the largest chunk of the rain forest zone, along with the largest chunk of old growth forest. This is where the apple egan rain forest is at its best. But in the one thousand nine twenties, more than two thirds of the mountains forests had already been walked, with much of what remained at the highest solvable, and eighty five percent of the land held by just a handful of waging company. In one thousand and twenty three local activists started pushing for the protection of this area as a national park, promoting IT as the last great untouched wilderness in the eastern us. It's been over a century since the height of the logging industry in the southern apple actions, and across much of the region, forests are matching and species are returning, including the most tech onic symbol of these mounts. In recent decades, black beyers have been making a huge comeback, reclaim ing about half of their original range since thousand nine hundred and seventy. Great smoky bear population has climbed from just six hundred to almost two thousand, and other areas have seen much faster growth. Someone loved this place, and maybe that's reason enough to love IT today. Maybe we can follow the footprint.